312 Annual Report of the Consulting Chemist for 1879. 
found to be well worth the price at which the guano was sold. 
In not a few instances, however, the quality of the guano did 
not correspond with its market-price, and in some cases the 
composition of the bulk-sample delivered to the purchaser did 
not agree with that represented by the analysis of the official 
sample of the cargo from which the guano was alleged to 
have been supplied to the purchaser. It is to be feared that un- 
scrupulous retail manure-dealers buy in the wholesale market 
inferiof guano at the fair official rates at which such guanos 
are sold by the Peruvian Government agents, and retail it to 
farmers at prices at which the best Peruvian guano can be 
bought. 
It is an unfortunate circumstance that the characters and com- 
position of the different guano-deposits in South Peru vary greatly 
with the particular locality from which they are shipped to Eng- 
land ; and as the present importations into England of Peruvian 
guano come from the south of Peru, their agricultural and com- 
mercial value necessarily varies considerably. Thus, cargoes 
from the deposits at Pabillon de Pica are richer in ammonia and 
more valuable than those from the Huanillos deposits, and these 
again have a much higher value than the guano from the deposits 
at Lobos de Afuera and Lobos de Tierra. A dealer in manures, 
as a rule, takes good care to protect his interests, and he is in a 
position to ascertain, with comparative little trouble or expense, 
whether or not a guano which he intends to buy is really part 
of the particular cargo from which the official sample was 
drawn, and according to which its price has been fixed by the 
Peruvian Government agents ; but in most cases the purchaser of 
a ton or two of guano has no means of ascertaining whether the 
guano delivered by a local manure-dealer is part of the cargo 
which it is represented to be in the official analysis. The 
general guarantee that guano is genuine Peruvian, as pointed 
out in a former Report, at the present time has lost its signifi- 
cance and is liable to mislead farmers. 
It is much to be regretted that all Peruvian guano is not sold 
of a fairly uniform quality at one uniform price, for, as stated 
already, the buyer of guano, especially if he be a small farmer 
requiring but a single ton or less, is exposed to the risk of being 
supplied by local dealers with an inferior guano, for which he 
will have to pay the top price of the best cargoes. 
In illustration of these remarks the following three analyses 
made during the past season for members of the Society may 
be quoted : — 
No. 1, it will be seen, contains fully 2 per cent, more ammonia, 
more soluble phosphoric acid, and less moisture than the guano 
marked No. 2, and is worth about 21. more per ton than the latter. 
Nevertheless, No. 1 was bought at Liverpool at 12/, bs. a ton,, 
